Mike Mondo Looks Back on the Spirit Squad

Former WWE Superstar and member of the Spirit Squad Mike Mondo chatted with Newsday recently about his WWE experience and reminisced about his time in the Spirit Squad.

Mondo, then known as “Mikey,” was called up to the main roster in early 2006 alongside several other promising WWE developmental stars to form a male cheerleading squad who acted on behalf of Vince McMahon. He said that WWE offered to pay for cheerleading lessons on his off days, something he and his group took full advantage of and showed off in their first meeting with Mr. McMahon when they marched around his desk performing their routine.

“He was like, ‘Haha! This is going to work. I like it,'” said Mondo, who boasts being singled out by Shawn Michaels as his “favorite cheerleader,” because of his commitment to the gimmick. “I understood that this was a character that was going to get heat. The wrestling was almost secondary.”

Mondo and the group also got to be part of WrestleMania 22, interfering in McMahon’s match with Michaels.

“I remember just looking around at the Squad members and thinking, ‘We made it to the dance. We made it to WrestleMania,'” said Mondo, who got further encouragement from Michaels once inside the ring. “He said to us while we were down there, ‘Welcome to WrestleMania boys.'”

He also discusses the surprise the group stumbled upon when seeing that the box they were shipped off in following the demise of the Spirit Squad said “OVW” on it, then the developmental program for WWE.

“We were told it was going to say, “Tijuana,'” recalled Mondo. “When I saw that, I remember thinking, ‘Well, that kind of sucks.'”

The rest of the article features more about his time with the unit, what he’s doing now, and his thoughts on Dolph Ziggler’s success.

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